Introduction

This will help you know the current situation of the education system of Bangladesh. Bangladesh has one of the worst education systems in the world. And this needs to be improved. A bad education system can destroy the country. Every country needs an excellent education system which can let them be the best in the world. Bangladesh needs to improve it's education system. Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in the world because of it's great leaders but Bangladesh does not spend much on the education system. There are laws but there is no enforcement of law 

 

 

Contents


Problems of the education system of Bangladesh

The biggest problems of the education system are below 

  • Uneducated Teacher 

This is one of the biggest problems of course. Some are educated but don't know to teach and some are not educated enough to teach and don't know to teach either. They don't even understand the questions of the textbooks. And of course not everyone of them has this problem. 

  • The very few amount of the salary of teachers 

Most of the skilled people don't choose to be a teacher because of the very few amount of the salary of a teacher. In public schools, teachers get BDT 20,000 a month in average. And sometimes less than 10,000. Which is less than a tiles mason who's daily wages is BDT 1000.  

  • Illegal note and guide books 

This is one of the big reasons of the lack of students creativity. Because memorization does not increase creativity. This caused inability to imagine and do creative things. 

  • Low investments in education 

Bangladesh invests only 2% of it's GDP in education while UNESCO recommended to invest 6% of it. Teachers are not getting enough salary because of this. As a result, many skilled people are not choosing to teach. And many of the teachers are not teaching anything in the classroom and And inviting them to take private tuition with them. Some of them give the students who take private tutions more marks and the others get less. 

  • Grading policies of the examinations 

The grading policies encourage children to compete with others and become the best. This competition leads to memorization and learning without understanding anything. This also encourages the schools to be the best. As a result, the schools take every step to become the best. 


Illegal books are being sold openly 

Many publishers are selling note and guide books despite ban since 1980. These books are being sold by many names like Made easy, Test Paper, etc. 

These books are very famous among most of the teachers and students. According to a research, 37 out of 100 teachers are depended on guide books and they are not able to teach with the creative method of education adopted by the government.  

According to the Notebook Prohibition Act-1980, Books like these can not be printed or marketed. 

But despite ban, these books are being printed and marketed cashing as there is a high demand of these books among students even teachers. The Authorities conduct campaigns but it does not affect the sales.  

The ex-president of the Bangladesh Publishers and Book Seller Association said that most of the teachers do not understand the creative education method. 

These banned note and guide books are in many cases prescribed by the teachers and being sold every where in the country.
 


Illegal note and guide books are killing the Creativity of students

According to the academics, these books are posing a major setback for creative and thinking faculties among students. Many teachers are also dependent on guide books while setting questions for the exams.


In some cases, because of the unholy alliance with publishers, many teachers are compelling students to buy guide books.

 

According to the National Education Policy 2010 Formulation Committee member Siddiqur Rahman, the creative education system adopted by the government has increased students reliance on guide books as they do not understand the system. 


What government did to solve this problem? 

According to the Notebook Prohibition Act-1980, notebook means a book which contains annotations, explanations, notes, answers, or solutions to any question of the textbooks. The one who prints, sells, publishes, imports or distributes these illegal banned books will be punishable with imprisonment for up-to seven years or with a fine BDT 25,000 or both according to the third section of the law. 

In a letter of the Prime Minster's office to the Ministry of Education in February 2015 noted that some of the teachers are even taking bribes from the banned note and guide book publishers and forcing students to buy those books. 

The government has spent about BDT 750 crore for 4.5 crore textbooks to be distributed for free among 3.5 crore students all over the country. Because of the note and guide books, students are memorizing the answers of each an every creative question and are losing their creativity. Because of this the unemployment problem is rising as we don't have enough skilled people. 


What are the results of what government did? 

There are no such good results of what government did. The government just made the law but did not enforce the law. Teachers are recommending students to buy note and guide books. There are no creative things to study. Every student memorizes tons of pages which will be not profitable for them in the future.  This leads Bangladesh to be an unskilled nation
 


What government did to improve education?
The government has worked hard and is working hard to improve education. Bangladesh has made remarkable gains over the past twenty years in education. It’s enrollment rate at primary education reached 98% from 80%. And secondary education rate is now 54%. The government adopted the creative method of education in order to improve the creativity of students. 

However, most of the schools do not follow the policies made by the government. The education would be way better if the educational institutions followed the policies made by the government. 



How these problems can be solved?

First of all, we need to improve the quality of teachers. The teachers must be educated and know to teach. The salaries of the teachers should be minimum the amount to run them and their family well. Many skilled persons are moving to foreign countries for better living instead of making their country better. If they can have a better life in their country then I think they will not move to other countries.  

I saw my teachers just coming to class, standing quietly, commanding one or two students to read aloud the part of their guide book they have memorized, and then finally leave without teaching anything and commanding to memorize another part of their guide book. One of my teachers told “School is not a place to study. You have to memorize your lesson and read aloud to the teacher next day.” I don’t know how she became a teacher. We had to memorize our lessons and write it in our exams. If we did not do this, then they gave us “zeros”. The amazing part is that those questions are called “Creative Questions”. This was a part of the creative method of education adopted by the government. But this did not work in almost all of the educational institutions. 

Secondly, we have to take action against the illegal guide books. These books are causing a massive impact on the creativity of students. As a result, Bangladesh is becoming an unskilled country. I have discussed about it above. 


Thirdly, Bangladesh has to spend more on education. Bangladesh spends only 2% of its GDP on education. Which is a very low amount. 


Then Bangladesh has to change the competitive grading policy. This is one of the biggest problems in the education system of the country. 


All actions to solve the problems of the education system should be taken. 


We need to get rid of dependency on guidebooks rather than textbooks. The students and most of the teachers prefer guide books. And w
We have to have the right teacher student ratio. According to some experts, the right student teacher ratio is 1:35 while Bangladesh’s average is 1:60.
 

Best medium of education

There are two mediums of education available in Bangladesh. English and Bengali. English medium schools are believed by most people to be the best. However, most of the students study in Bengali medium schools. 

According to Salimullah Khan (Writer), the best medium of education is the mother lanuage of the nation. The decolonization would lag behind without making Bengali the main medium of education in all stages. Until Bengali is not the medium of education in higher studies, the quality of education would stay medium, and in the realm of education, quality equals low. 

 

 

 

Sources